


Fated: Season 7

by ddixons_angel



Series: Fated [7]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29136483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddixons_angel/pseuds/ddixons_angel
Summary: After suffering a tremendous loss, Gloria sets off on her own to fight the Saviors.Follows the main storyline of Season 7 of The Walking Dead.**This is Part 7 of my Fated series, please read the previous parts if you haven't already! ^^
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Fated [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828717
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!

How could things turn out this badly? The blood and brains of Abraham spilled all over the ground as Negan continues to bash his head in. Rosita and Sasha look in horror, tears staining their faces as the blood of the man they both loved splatters from each hit. Negan scans the lineup and catches onto their faces, gasping in realization.

“Oh… were you two… oh, I’m so sorry.” Negan says to Rosita; the worst part was that he actually sounded sincere.

The menacing grin on his face does not falter as he lifts his bat up, dark red blood dripping on the ground as he puts it up to Rosita’s face, mocking her, “now, you take a damn good look at what you made me do… Take a damn look!”

Negan’s mockery of Rosita’s ex-lover pushes Daryl over the edge as he growls and lunges towards Negan before anyone can stop him. He punches the man in the face, causing him to stumble backwards. The Saviors hurry to hold Daryl back, kicking and punching him to the ground. Dwight, the man who had shot Daryl, presses his crossbow to Daryl’s head as he looks up to his leader.

“I can do him, right here, right now.” he says.

His words cause Gloria to whimper and she’s about to pounce on Dwight but Glenn catches her, stopping her from doing any more damage. They watch helplessly as Negan leans down and peers at Daryl.

“No… no, you need to **earn** that kill. Get him back in line.” Negan says, wiping the blood from his now split lip.

Dwight does as told and drags Daryl back into the space beside Gloria. She grabs his hand once he’s by her side as Negan paces around. He rubs his face with his free hand and shakes his head.

“I told you, first one’s free, what’d I say? I would shut that shit down! No exceptions! Now, I don’t know what kind of lying pieces of shit ya’ll have been dealin’ with, but I am a man of my word. I need you all to know me,” he takes a pause as he stops walking, standing right in front of Glenn.

“No…” Gloria whispers, dread in her gut as she realizes what’s about to happen.

“Well… back to it” 

“No!” she shrieks as Negan raises his bat and slams it right on top of Glenn’s head.

Time slows down for Gloria. A high pitch ringing in her ears as if she were the one Negan had struck. She hears Negan’s voice. Then Glenn’s as he babbles something but she can’t understand it. She can’t hear anything, can’t see anything, can’t feel anything as her brother is killed right in front of her. The only thing she could feel are the droplets of Glenn’s blood as it splatters onto her with every hit from Negan’s bat. 

The blood feels like acid. Every drop on her skin burns and she can’t comprehend it. She doesn’t want to comprehend it, she just wants the pain to burn everything away. Gloria’s eyes were only on Glenn’s dead body. Nothing else around her matters. Negan seemed to have gone away, to where? She didn’t give a fuck, her focus was on Glenn. 

Glenn, her sweet older brother, was lying in a pool of his own blood, beaten beyond recognition. A lot of time must have gone by but the hours felt like years as she sat on the ground, staring at the sight in front of her. 

“Load up… What’s his name?” Negan asks; turns out he came back from wherever the hell he went. 

“Daryl,” Simon, the man with the curly mustache, answers after a moment of contemplation. 

“Wow… That actually sounds right!” Negan exclaims, “load up Daryl, he’s mine now. I **like** him." 

The mention of Daryl’s name brings Gloria back to reality. Panic rises in her heart as she realizes what Negan had just said. 

"No…” Gloria whimpers as she tries to keep her hold on Daryl. 

It was no use though. The Saviors tore Daryl away from her grasp and the only thing she could do was watch as they slammed the doors of the truck shut. 

She was lost. Negan and the Saviors took everything from her. They took Daryl, they killed Glenn. It feels like hours as the group sits in deafening silence, letting their reality sink in. Abraham was dead. Glenn was dead. Daryl was taken. Nothing seemed right.

“You need to get ready.” 

Gloria looks up to see Maggie struggling to stand, her voice quivering as she speaks. She looks broken, frail, and weak. Gloria hears Rick saying something about taking her to the Hilltop to have Harlan take a look at her. So that’s why they were out here in the first place. 

_‘If anything happens to me, promise me you’ll take care of Maggie and our kid?’_

Fresh tears well up in Gloria’s eyes as she remembers what Glenn had told her before. Before they started this war with the Saviors. She made a promise to him, and she had every intention to keep that promise.

Gloria finally gets up from her spot and walks up to Glenn’s body, picking him up from the ground, refusing any help offered to her.

“Maggie, get in the truck. I’m taking you to Hilltop.” she says without making eye contact with anyone.

She could feel their sympathetic gaze on her as she makes her way to the truck and carefully loads Glenn’s body onto the back of the truck. Rick and Carl helped Sasha carry Abraham’s body to load onto the truck as well. Gloria gets into the truck with Maggie and Sasha, all three of them drive towards the Hilltop together in silence.

—

Once in front of the gates of the Hilltop, Gloria relentlessly honks the horn of the truck until they open for her and she proceeds to drive into the community. She puts the truck into park and gets out of the vehicle with Sasha helping Maggie out. They’re all greeted by Jesus who also goes to help Maggie when he sees her pale complexion. 

“Harlan!” Gloria calls out for the Hilltop’s doctor. 

“What happened?” Jesus asks the women.

Gloria watches Sasha escort Maggie to the medical trailer with Harlan, she speaks calmly, “we ran into Negan… he killed some of our people.” 

“Who?” Jesus asks, a frown on his face.

“Abraham… and Glenn…” she whimpers out his name.

A sorrowful expression spreads across Jesus’s face, he takes in Gloria’s pained look as she wipes her eyes and tries her best not to cry. 

“I’m sorry.” is all he can say.

“Yeah…” Gloria takes a deep breath, “is there anywhere we can bury their bodies?”

“There’s room by the trailers, I’ll get you some shovels.” Jesus tells her, patting her arm before going off to retrieve them.

Gloria gets back into the truck to drive it towards the area Jesus had told her about. He meets her at the area and helps her start digging the graves. After making sure Maggie was in good hands with Harlan, Sasha met with Gloria and Jesus to help with the graves. She insisted on being the one to dig for Abraham and Gloria was not letting anyone take the shovel away from her as she dug for Glenn. When the graves were big enough, they lower the bodies into the ground and Sasha proceeds to fill Abraham’s grave with dirt. Gloria stares at Glenn’s body as he lays there completely still, bloody, and lifeless. Gloria’s legs give way as she breaks down. It shouldn’t be like this, it can’t be like this. She sobs and cries painfully at the loss of her brother. 

“Gloria…” Sasha calls out to her as she looks at her sympathetically.

Gloria doesn’t respond to her calls, her grief had completely taken over. She’s never lost somebody so close to her before, she never thought that she’d lose Glenn. Jesus sighs at the sight and comes behind her, gently ushering her to the side as he takes the shovel from her. He proceeds to help Gloria fill up the grave with dirt, putting Glenn to rest. 

She sits by his grave for hours, not moving since the graves were dug. She didn’t want to leave his side, she couldn’t. Gloria looks over to the side to see a bloody G pendant necklace as well as the pocket watch Glenn used to carry around. Gloria recalled that Jesus said something about finding it in Glenn’s pocket. She reaches out to the ground, picking up the necklace. She must have picked it up sometime when she went to get Glenn’s body, she didn’t even know she did. Gloria stares at the G in her hand, Glenn’s blood staining the piece, and all she can see is red. She puts on the necklace accompanying her own.

“I won’t let him get away with this… I’m gonna kill him… I’m gonna kill them all.” she rasps.

Finally, she gets up, picking up the pocket watch and immediately heads to the medical trailer to check up on Maggie. Gloria’s relieved when she sees her sister-in-law sleeping soundly, her complexion not as pale as before. She looks around the trailer and sees Harlan. 

“Hey.” she greets him in a whisper, she didn’t want to wake Maggie up, “how is she?”

“She’s fine, resting. The baby is okay, too.” Harlan smiles at her, relieving her even more with his answers.

“What even happened? She was fine this morning.” Gloria asks.

“She suffered from abruptio placentae.” he tells her.

Gloria nods, remembering that term in a book she’d read, “separation of the placenta from the uterus.”

“You did your reading.” Harlan chuckles lightly then looks at her sadly, “I heard what happened to your brother… I’m sorry.”

Gloria sighs and looks at Harlan with teary eyes, “you’re certain that the baby is okay?”

Harlan nods, “yes, the baby is fine.” 

“Good…” she nods, taking a deep breath, “Harlan, I need you to look after Maggie while I take care of something, can you do that for me?”

He frowns in confusion but nods anyway, “I can… but are you going to be okay?”

She doesn’t answer him immediately, instead she turns to look at Maggie and brushes her hair from covering her eyes. Gloria looks down at her hand then places the pocket watch into Maggie’s palm before turning back to look at Harlan with a forced smile.

“I gotta be.” Gloria says, then she heads for the trailer door, “thank you, Harlan.”

He nods at her then she leaves the trailer. Harlan was worried about what she was planning to do but something told him that whatever she was planning on doing, no one in the world could stop her. 

Gloria makes her way to Jesus’s trailer, knocking on the door to his home. She waits for him to open the door and he greets her with a small smile as he lets her inside. She nods at him and enters as he closes the door behind her.

“I’m just going to cut straight to the point,” Gloria tells him as she turns around to face Jesus, “I need you to tell me everything you know about the Saviors.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!
> 
> OMG I totally forgot to update this on here, I'm so sorry!!!!

“I’m just going to cut straight to the point,” Gloria tells him as she turns around to face Jesus, “I need you to tell me everything you know about the Saviors.”

Jesus purses his lips before sighing softly, “you’ve had a long day, Gloria, you need to rest-”

“What I **need** is-” Gloria takes a shuddered breath, she didn’t mean to raise her voice at him, “what I need is Glenn… and Daryl to be safe… alive…”

“What happened to Daryl?” Jesus dares to ask, “did Negan… kill him too?”

“No… no, God no…” Gloria sniffles, wiping the tears from her eyes, “at least… not yet… Negan took him… I think as an insurance so Rick won’t try to fight back or some shit…”

“And… you’re planning to go get him back.” Jesus reads her mind, a serious look on his face.

“I have to. I have to get Daryl back… I need him… and it’s the only way we’ll fight,” Gloria tells him, “Rick isn’t going to fight if they have Daryl, he’s not going to risk that…”

“Why does there have to be a fight?” Jesus asks, although he wished he hadn’t when Gloria glared at him, “Sasha told me the deal Negan forced Rick to take, things seem to be settled, no one else has to die.” 

“I just had to bury my brother because a maniac with a fucking bat decided to kill him! He was supposed to be a father!” Gloria shouts, tears welling in her eyes again as she thinks about the fact that Glenn is gone, “and if I don’t do this, if I don’t try to get Daryl back and somehow weaken the Saviors… Maggie’s going to fight the Saviors, whether or not we get Daryl back and she’s going to do it with or without anyone’s help. You saw the state she’s in, I can’t let her risk her life.”

“So you’re risking your own life,” Jesus sighs.

“I made a promise to Glenn that I’d protect her and their kid if anything ever happened to him… I’m not breaking that promise, not **ever** ,” Gloria takes a deep breath, “so are you going to help me or not?”

Jesus furrows his brows together, contemplating in silence. Gloria sighs at his silence, thinking it was him not knowing how to tell her that he wouldn’t help her. She turns to make her way to the door.

“Wait!” he calls out just before she opens the door, “just hang on.”

Gloria turns to see Jesus walk towards a dresser. He opens a drawer and pulls out a worn out notebook and a set of knives. He lets out a breath as he puts the items on the table in the room. 

“How do you expect to fight the Saviors and get Daryl back if you don’t have any weapons? Or a plan?” Jesus smiles softly at her.

Gloria scoffs lightly at his words, stepping towards the table, she picks up one of the knives. Until now, she didn’t even realize that she didn’t have her daggers on her. She’d left them on the nightside table in her and Daryl’s bedroom back at Alexandria. Her eyes drift to the notebook Jesus had placed on the table, curious, she looks up at Jesus and he nods at her to look through it. Slightly hesitant, Gloria places the knife down and picks up the book. She opens it and furrows her brows together as the first page only had three words: WE ARE NEGAN. She glares at the name written on the page. 

“What the hell is this…” Gloria seethes, anger coursing through her veins as she continues to glare at the name, she then flips through the page and scoffs at the contents. 

Throughout the pages were sketches of the Saviors’ outposts and compounds. There were detailed maps of each compound, what they were in charge of, and who was in charge of each place. This was the goldmine for taking out the Saviors.

“I took that from the Savior’s outpost that we took out,” Jesus informs her, earning a look from Gloria, “I like to journal in my free time so when I saw it, I took it thinking that it was just a blank notebook… it wasn’t like the Saviors at the outpost were going to need it since we were there to kill them all…”

“So you knew they had more outposts and people?” Gloria frowns.

“Only a few hours before you showed up at the Hilltop, if I knew any earlier than that, I would have found a way to let you know,” Jesus says.

She nods, understanding and accepting his words, she then proceeds to flip through the pages of the book, “there has to be something in here about their main camp, or where they take prisoners.”

“Try the page labelled the Sanctuary,” Jesus suggests.

Gloria looks up at him and scoffs before flipping through to find the page he was talking about, “Sanctuary… that’s bullshit… anyone who calls their home a sanctuary are maniacs…” 

She finally stops flipping through when she finds the page labelled The Sanctuary. It was noticeably larger than all of the other outposts and compounds. It looked like a factory of some sort, it had a bunch of rooms, an infirmary, a trade and work area, and finally a section labelled ‘cells’. Gloria’s breath hitches at the word, she places the book down and points to that area to show Jesus.

“Cells… prison cells, that has to be where they’re holding Daryl, this is where I can find him and get him back,” Gloria says.

“You’re planning to go straight to the Sanctuary?” Jesus asks her, the slight skepticism in his voice is not unnoticed by Gloria.

“I **have** to!” Gloria shouts, her emotions getting the better of her.

“Look at the facts, Gloria!” Jesus shouts back, only wanting her to listen to his advice, “this book tells us that there are at least 5 more outposts between the Hilltop and the Sanctuary, do you really think that you’re going to be able to go straight to the Sanctuary without any of the Saviors spotting you? Especially with the lookouts? You don’t even have a gun!”

Gloria sighs heavily as she takes in his words. Jesus was right, she couldn’t expect to head straight for the Sanctuary without getting caught by other outposts or scouting Saviors. Even if she did get that lucky, there wasn’t much she could do once she was at the Sanctuary without a gun. That’s when she gets an idea; it was most likely stupid but it was her only idea that sounded probable.

“We don’t have guns… but the Saviors do, right?” Gloria says, flipping the pages again to find the one closest from the Hilltop.

“They… they do…” Jesus says, hesitant as he’s afraid of what Gloria is going to suggest.

“Right here,” Gloria says, pointing at a section of the compound sketch, her eyes never leaving the page as if she was studying it, committing it to memory, “that’s their armory, I can take out this compound and take their guns.” 

“You can’t be serious…” Jesus sighs, “Gloria, it’s too dangerous for you to do this on your own, we all barely made it out the last time and that was with a whole group of people.”

“I know, but last time, we didn’t have all this information,” Gloria says, her confidence flowing back in her voice as she looks up at him, “I can do this, I have to do this.”

Jesus sighs, leaning on the table, “alright… you have all of this info, but how will you get in? They have eyes everywhere.”

“I’m gonna need a distraction. I know they have an alarm system, but I’m gonna force them to not use it.” she tells him, earning her a frown.

“You’re going to use the walkers.” he concludes to which she nods. 

“I’m gonna try and line up all the walkers here and get them inside, draw them in with sound.” She traces the border of the fence with her finger to show Jesus her plan.

“That’ll only lead them to the border, they’ll see you come in.” Jesus interrupts her.

“I’ll need some kind of device to throw over the fence. Something that can attract the walkers by sound and vision.” Gloria purses her lips.

Jesus snaps his fingers as he sits up, “Firecrackers!” 

“Where are we going to get firecrackers?” Gloria scoffs at him.

“Right here!” Jesus grins at her then goes over to his dresser, “I used these to distract Rick and Daryl when we all found that food truck.” 

Gloria chuckles at his words, “the one that ended up in a lake because of you?”

“Hey, Daryl didn’t need to chase me.” Jesus says as he places the firecrackers on the table. 

“Well, you didn’t need to steal that truck.” Gloria shrugs.

Jesus chuckles and shakes his head, sitting back down, “so you got your point of entry, you have your distractions, but how are you going to get in there without the walkers attacking you? You’ll be surrounded.”

“Do you have an old trench coat or something like that? Preferably something you’ll never wear again.” Gloria asks him.

“I uh… have a hooded cloak?” Jesus replies with a confused expression.

“That’s perfect,” she nods.

“And… what are you gonna do with it?” Jesus asks, an amused look on his face.

“Blend in with the walkers. They won’t be able to tell me apart.” 

—

Gloria decided to leave the Hilltop at dawn just before Sasha would wake up. She checked on them once before leaving, giving Jesus enough time to help her gather supplies that she needed. She meets him at the gates of the Hilltop.

“Are you sure you don’t need help?” Jesus asks just before she leaves, she was insistent on doing this alone.

“You’ve helped me enough, I’ll be okay.” Gloria smiles softly at him and pats his arm, “you’ll see me again soon.”

“I hope so.” Jesus smiles back at her as she leaves. 

She puts on the hood of the cloak and goes on her way, following the map to the closest outpost. She comes across a supply store and decides to rummage through to see if she can find anything useful for her mission. Unfortunately, supplies for survival and everyday use were null but she did find the kitchen timers untouched. 

She thought of how she used them to lure walkers once before, she could definitely do it again. Other than picking up the timers and a lighter, nothing else was of use to her in the supply store. Gloria continues on her way to the outpost and finds highground to keep watch on the gate until nighttime when she would set out on her plan. 

In the middle of her watch, a walker roams towards her and she easily kills it by stabbing it in the back of its head. She takes this time to dissect the walker, removing the cloak from her body and soaking the outside of the cloak with the blood and guts of the walker. She grimaces and groans at the smell of the corpse and lays the wet dripping cloak along a low hanging tree branch. 

“I am not wearing that right now.” she says to herself.

Gloria sighs as she remembers back to how Glenn wasn’t able to handle the smell the first time they used the walker guts as a distraction. She smiles sadly at the memory of how he threw up after T-Dog decided to bring up dead kittens and puppies. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath to keep in control of her emotions. Now was not the time for that. 

She kept watch over the guards and lookouts of the outpost. When it was dark enough, Gloria puts on the walker cloak and makes her way to the front of the fences, holding the bolt cutters that Jesus had provided for her. She reaches one of the fence posts, leaning down and proceeds to cut the bottom of the post so that the fence is partly detached from the ground. From her experience at the prison, with the weight of all the walkers on the fence, it should easily topple over without the support of the fence posts. She needed to make it so that it looked like an accidental heard and not a deliberate attack in case Negan believed it to be Rick. She heads to the other post and does the same. She then winds up a kitchen timer to go off in ten minutes. Gloria drops the timer on the ground once it’s set then makes her way to the other side of the outpost where she waits for the timer to go off. 

Once the shrill ringing of the timer sounds, Gloria waits for the fence to be piled up with walkers then takes out another timer and sets it to go off in one minute. She chucks it to the middle of the field just outside the building. Just as she planned, the fence topples over with the weight of the herd, allowing the walkers to trudge towards the outpost. The second timer goes off, attracting the walkers closer to the building. She hears panicked shouts from the outpost, Saviors warning each other of the large herd. The shouts are then followed by gunfire at the herd.

“Perfect.” Gloria says to herself as she takes out the firecrackers that she laced with paper so that the fire would burn brighter and longer. 

She’d also tied the end of the firecrackers to a rock so that it would land further when she throws it over the fence. Lighting the firecrackers with the lighter she’d picked up, she spins the heavy end of the firecrackers. Once she has enough momentum, she lets it go in the direction of the outpost. She smirks when she sees it landing right in the middle of the field and as if on cue, the firecrackers go off as they land. 

The field lights up with each crack from the firecrackers, attracting and luring in walkers from miles. Soon, the fields were swarmed by an ocean of walkers, not letting up even as the Saviors shot at them. Seeing that the Saviors were distracted by the herd, Gloria took it as her signal to enter the outpost. She runs to the back of the outpost and cuts open a hole in the fence to let herself in. She heads straight for the main doors of the outpost with the hunting knives in hand, sneaking behind the door as a Savior rushes out with a gun and she slices his throat. The Savior falls to the ground as walkers begin to devour him. 

The Savior’s body had blocked the door from closing so she easily steps over him as the walkers do not notice her. The scent of the dead emitting from her cloak made her invisible to the walkers surrounding the outpost. The other Saviors inside the outpost are all panicking as the walkers wander into the building. Some of them were already bit or bleeding out, others Gloria had stabbed in the chest. She had no intention of stopping them from turning, they could kill whatever Savior came to the outpost and it would be doing her and her group a favor. 

As she’d memorized the map in the notebook, Gloria easily found her way to the armory. She starts to pack up the guns into a duffle bag laying around, taking a handgun for herself. From what she knew about the Hilltop’s deal with Negan, he would never let them keep their armory stocked the way it was. There was no way Negan would only take just half of their armory, so she had to take as many guns as she could, that was the only way they even had a chance at winning this fight. 

“Hey!” 

Gloria hears a voice calling out to her and she turns in the direction of the voice. She doesn’t hesitate to shoot the Savior in the neck, causing him to fall down and choke on his own blood before stilling. Gloria walks out of the armory after collecting as many guns and ammunition as she can. She walks to the body of the man she’d shot, noticing a walkie on the man’s belt, she decides to take it so that she can get any insider information from the broadcast. 

Without needing anything else from the outpost and seeing that most of the Saviors within the outpost were either dead or already turned, she makes her way out. Jesus had helped her map out which outposts and compounds were closest so she knew which order to go through. Already knowing which direction to go, she heads off to the next outpost, however, Jesus had told her it would be at least a day’s walk so she decided that she would need to find a place to rest then set out on her next attack. 

Gloria had figured out that the next outpost was closer to Alexandria as she had come across the safe house she and Daryl had found when they first got to the community. She peers into the windows and sees that it’s just like they left it. Rick and some others had helped stock it up with food and supplies during the months after the herd had invaded. He figured that it was best that they had some safe place to get to in case any of them were stuck out there in the event that another herd broke through. Gloria opens the door to the house, closing it behind her as she steps inside. She sets down the bag of guns in the corner of the house and takes off the walker cloak, throwing it on the ground. Gloria allows herself to lie on the ground and that is when her body lets her know how exhausted she was. She was able to drift off to a light slumber soon after. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!

Static from the walkie talkie on Gloria’s belt was what woke her up just as the sun rose. She opens her eyes as she listens intently to the discourse. She sits up immediately as the Saviors talk about how Daryl had just attempted to escape and were now discussing what to do with him. Fear and worry course over her as she listens, a part of her didn’t want to know what they would do to him, but at least this proved that Daryl was still alive for the moment. 

“Teach him a lesson.” Negan’s voice suddenly booms over the walkie, then silence.

Gloria lets out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding. What were they going to do to Daryl? She shakes her head, she can’t get emotional, not now. She had a mission and she had to go through with her plans. Gloria looks around the safe house for a place to hide the guns; she figured that she couldn’t take all of them with her in case she got caught by the Saviors. 

“Hm… not there, way too obvious,” she says to herself as she looks at the burnt out fireplace. 

She gets up and looks down to the ground as she hears her own footsteps on the floorboards; it’s hollow. A smile creeps up on her lips as she gets an idea. She begins to take apart the floorboards in the corner of the house, then she rummages through the bag of guns, taking out two silencers, a handgun, and a sniper rifle. She puts the rest of the guns in the hole and covers up the hiding spot with the floorboards. Gloria then pushes a table on top of the spot to make it look less obvious. After hiding the guns, she sets out to the next outpost with her supply bag and sniper rifle strapped under her walker cloak. 

It seems to be late afternoon once she sees the fences of the next Savior compound, again, she finds high ground to keep a lookout for the guards. She waits for it to get dark, however, while waiting, the walkie sounds with static again.

“Outpost D was overrun by walkers!” 

A smirk grows on Gloria’s lips, “so they found out…”

She watches as the guards begin to visibly panic, but knowing that their outpost was overrun wasn’t going to help them at all. When Gloria deemed it dark enough, she sniped out the guards on the outside of the fence. Then goes to cut the fence posts as she had at the last outpost, then dropping the kitchen timer set to go off in ten minutes. She rushes off to the side to set up her firecrackers as she waits for the herd of walkers to take down the fence. 

Her plan goes exactly as it had the first night, allowing her to infiltrate the outpost with ease, killing off all and any Savior she encounters and robbing their armory. She retreats back to the safe house, hiding the guns in the same spot as before and rests there for the night. 

The next morning, she wakes up on her own. No news or sounds from the walkie as she sets out to the third outpost. It takes her a few hours before she sees the fences but unfortunately, she isn’t able to find highground this time. She finds this out the hard way as guards begin to shoot at her immediately when they spot her. 

“Shit!” Gloria swears under her breath as she runs away, dodging the bullets.

She has to run away from the outpost as she hears more gunfire behind her. She knew she had it too easy for the past few days. Gloria cries out in pain as a bullet grazes the side of her neck. She stumbles forward and she grimaces as she continues to run, her hand pressing on her wound to try and slow the bleeding. 

After running for a while, the gunfire ceased as she got away from the Saviors that were chasing after her. However, she was still bleeding from her wound. Her clothes were now soaked in blood and sweat, her face was pale from the blood loss. She finds herself in the middle of the woods, leaning on the thick trunk of a tree as she tries to catch her breath. 

“I see somebody!” a young voice calls out.

The voice catches Gloria’s attention immediately and she raises her handgun up at a blond young man. She falters though when she sees Morgan walking up behind him, he furrows his brows when he sees her.

“Gloria?” he calls out.

A weak smile plays on her lips, “Morgan…”

Her legs give out right after she says his name and she falls to the ground. She hears him call out to her again, but this time in a panic as he rushes to her side to help her. The last thing she hears is Morgan telling the others to bring her back to a place called the Kingdom, and that she needs help.

—

When Gloria wakes up, she finds herself in an unfamiliar room on a bed. She winces at the pain on her neck, finding a bandage on her wound as she gets up, looking up as a woman with a scarf around her head comes into the room with a tray of food. 

“You’re awake,” the woman smiles warmly at her, “my name’s Nabila.”

“Gloria.” she says with a smile, “uh… where am I? And where’s Morgan?”

If her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her, she was certain that she saw Morgan in the woods before passing out.

“You’re at the Kingdom,” Nabila says simply as she puts down the tray on the nightstand beside the bed, “I can go get Morgan for you, but you’ll need to eat because I’m sure he’s going to bring you to meet the King. You should have some strength in you before you do.”

Gloria blinks at her in confusion, “the… King?” 

Nabila chuckles at her reaction and nods, “eat up, now.”

The woman then leaves the room as Gloria tilts her head, furrowing her brows together but then shrugs as she takes the tray of food. She places it in her lap and starts to dig in. She moans at the flavours of fresh food in her mouth as she only had dry foods and granola bars in the last few days. Morgan then walks into the room, greeting her with a smile.

“Good morning,” he says.

Gloria playfully eyes him, “it’s clearly not morning and you know it,” she gestures to the windows that show the clear evening sky.

He chuckles and nods then walks closer to her, “what were you doing that got you shot?”

“Fighting the Saviors,” she tells him simply.

Her answer earns her a frown from Morgan as he sits on the bed opposite hers, “why are you fighting them on your own?”

“I have to, they took Daryl… and Rick’s going to fight with me once I get him back, I have to try and weaken them for when he is ready to take them on.” Gloria explains.

“Why must there be a fight?” he asks.

“Negan killed our people.” she reveals.

Morgan pauses for a moment then says in a wary voice, “who?”

“Abraham…” she sighs, “and Glenn.”

“I…” he looks down and shakes his head, “I’m sorry…”

Gloria sighs again then looks up at him, “what are you doing here? What even is this ‘Kingdom’?”

“It’s another community that is very much like Alexandria.” he starts.

“And it’s run by a King?” Gloria raises an eyebrow.

Morgan chuckles softly and nods, “his name is King Ezekiel.”

She blinks at the name and title but then shrugs, accepting it. She then gets up from the bed.

“Where are you going?” Morgan asks, getting up from his seat on the bed. 

“I’m leaving, I still have a mission.” she tells him.

He raises his arm to stop her from walking past him, “you’re still injured.”

“I’m fine.” Gloria insists.

Morgan sighs at her persistence, “at least… meet the King. He’s the one who allowed you to stay in the Kingdom while you were out cold.”

She eyes him then finally gives in, “fine… take me to him.”

He nods then leads her out of the room. Gloria follows him but not without grabbing a long sleeved cardigan from her bag to cover her arms. If she really were to meet a king, she should look somewhat presentable. 

Morgan guides her to the doors of what looks to be an old stage theatre where he turns around to face her, “now uh… the King… he can be a bit… much.” 

Gloria chuckles at this as he gestures her to enter the building, “you’re being overdramatic, it’s not like he-”

The scene in front of her stops her in her tracks and her words. There was a man sitting in what seems like a throne, a guard beside him and a real life tiger chained and sitting right beside the man on the throne. 

Morgan grins at her reaction, “you were saying?”

“That’s a tiger…” she gapes at the animal then glances at Morgan, “would’ve been nice if you could have given me a heads up that he has a **tiger**.”

“I did.” he shrugs, amused, “I told you that he could be a bit much.”

Gloria deadpans him as he continues walking towards the stage, “a bit much doesn’t tell me anything about a tiger…” she mutters under her breath as she follows him.

“King Ezekiel!” Morgan greets with a smile, he then gestures back to Gloria, “please, allow me to introduce you to Gloria Rhee.”

Ezekiel smiles kindly at her and she smiles back at him, but awkwardly as she leans towards Morgan, “am I uh… supposed to bow or… something?”

The King lets out a hearty chuckle, shaking his head, “No need for that, I understand that my presence can be overbearing for others to handle, you need not be so formal.”

Gloria looks over to Morgan who looks away, he seems to be avoiding her gaze. 

“Do tell me from where you attained such wounds.” Ezekiel continues, calling her attention back to him.

“I uh… attained such wounds… from mine enemies…?” Gloria stutters, not sure if using theatrical Shakespearean speech would be seen as mockery.

The guard on the side lets out a giggle as well as Morgan, Gloria eyes the two then sighs, giving up, “I got shot by a group of people who call themselves the Saviors.”

A frown spreads on Ezekiel’s face at her words, “the Saviors? What happened that they would ambush you?”

“They have outposts, a lot of them. I took down two of them but got caught at the third and they shot at me.” Gloria explains. 

“You went against them alone?” he asks to which she nods, “why would you put yourself upon such a task?”

“They took my… our people… and the leader of the Saviors, Negan, he killed my brother. Bashed his skull in with a bat wrapped in barbed wire just to teach my group a lesson. I can’t let that go.” she reveals, trying to control her emotions at the memory. 

“Dude…” the guard on the side says lowly, “that is not cool…”

“Jerry.” Ezekiel calls out to quiet the guard, shooting him a scolding look then looks back at Gloria, “I do hope that you do not intend to bring any of that violence within the Kingdom.”

“I have no reason to, you aren’t part of the Saviors and have nothing to do with them. It’s not your fight and I’m well aware of that. So, I’m not going to ask you to join me.” Gloria assures him.

Ezekiel smiles at her and nods, “I thank you for understanding.”

“And I, thank you, sir, for your hospitality.” Gloria bows, slightly getting the hang of theatrical speech, “I hope you never have to come into contact with the Saviors or Negan.” 

She turns to leave when Ezekiel calls out to her, “you’re leaving the Kingdom so soon? Your wounds have yet to heal.”

Gloria sighs and turns to face the King again, “I have things to do.”

“Stay for another two days at least to heal. That’s what Carol did.” Morgan tells her.

The mention of Carol’s name makes her freeze, “Carol? She was here? Is she okay? Where is she?”

“She left Alexandria and got caught up with some of the Saviors, they shot at her too. She was injured when I found her and I brought her here. She’s fine but she’s gone now, that’s all I can tell you. She doesn’t want to be found.” Morgan explains.

Gloria sighs and nods, accepting his words. She knew why Carol left. She didn’t know when she did but she knew why. As much as she missed her, she understood her reasoning. 

“I believe you should stay within our walls until your wounds have healed, and then go into battle,” Ezekiel interrupts her thoughts, “A responsible king does not let a wounded soldier into battle.”

“Even if I’m not your soldier?” she asks with a playful smile.

He chuckles, “you are still a soldier fighting with a purpose.”

His words comfort her and she nods, accepting his offer, “thank you uh… your Highness? Your majesty? Sir…?”

Jerry chuckles as Ezekiel smiles, amused, “you may call me whatever you please, at the end of the day it’s just a title, and I am but one man.”

“Actually,” Gloria says, “you are a man with a tiger.”

He looks over to the animal and pets her on the head, causing the tiger to purr, “that I am.” he looks back over at her, “do not let me disturb your rest, and Morgan, please show her around the Kingdom in the morrow.”

Morgan nods then guides her out the doors of the theatre, closing the doors behind them as they leave. He walks her back to her temporary room to rest.

“Did Carol meet him?” Gloria asks as she walks with Morgan, to which he nods, “what the hell was her reaction? She could **not** have taken him seriously.” 

“She played along with it very well, then gave me crap for it afterwards.” Morgan chuckles at the memory, “come to think of it, she played along with it even more than I ever expected her to.”

Gloria nods at that, “that’s Carol, always exceeding people’s expectations.”

“Here we are,” Morgan says as they reach the room, “they have some spare clothes in the drawers, I’m sure the King wouldn’t mind if you stayed here longer.” 

“I don’t think I’ll be staying any longer than I need to, but thank you.” she smiles at him. 

Morgan sighs but nods, “well, I’ll leave you to it. Goodnight, Gloria.”

“Night.” she says before heading into the room. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!

Gloria had spent the past two days exploring the Kingdom, she figured that the King was right, she shouldn’t fight while she was injured. Gloria got bored of reading in her temporary room and started to explore the place and eventually found an archery range and decided to take up the skill. It would be useful for when they ran out of bullets but still needed a range attack. She always found Daryl’s crossbow one of the smartest weapons to have after the outbreak. 

At first, she started off as a rather bad shot, but she knew that about herself already. After constant practice, her aim was getting better and better as she got used to the feel of the bow and arrow. 

It was now late afternoon as Gloria nocks an arrow on the bow string. She pulls it back and aims the arrow at the target in front of her, then she lets go of the arrow, hitting the target in the centre of the bullseye. As she picks up another arrow, she overhears a few women talking about a new group that entered the Kingdom.

“I wonder if they’re dangerous?” one of the women says.

Gloria shakes her head, ‘they’d only be in any real danger if they were the Saviors’ she thinks to herself. 

“They already went to see the King,” another woman says, “I wonder what they came to the Kingdom for, it looked quite serious.”

Nocking another arrow onto the bow string, Gloria decides to block out the women’s conversation as it was turning into plain gossip. 

“Gloria!” she hears Morgan calling out to her.

“Yep!” she calls back without looking at him, she releases the arrow and smiles proudly as it hits the centre of the target again.

She turns to face Morgan but freezes when her eye catches the group of people behind him. Rick, Michonne, Rosita, Jesus, Tara, Sasha, and Carl were all there, smiling at her, relief in their eyes to see that she was alive. She puts down the bow on the table and makes her way to the group.

“I’m glad that you made it out,” Jesus grins at her, “I told them all where you went.”

“Maggie almost killed him for letting you go out there alone,” Sasha tells her as she gives her a scolding look before nudging Gloria’s arm, “you had us all worried sick!”

“I’m sorry… but I had to. I needed you to look after Maggie… How is she?” Gloria asks.

“She’s okay,” Rick answers, catching her attention, then he puts his hand on Gloria’s shoulder, “I’m glad you’re okay too.”

She smiles softly and nods, “I gotta be, we have a war to fight.”

“We do.” Rick nods in agreement. 

Gloria looks around the group and her breath hitches when she sees Daryl hiding behind everyone. He made it out, he was alive. 

“Daryl…” she calls out to him, his head hanging low to avoid eye contact with her.

Tears well up in her eyes as she makes her way to him, Michonne and Tara move out of the way for her to reach him. Gloria wraps her arms around him, holding him tightly to her.

“I’m so glad you’re okay… I was so scared… I thought they’d kill you.” she whispers.

Daryl doesn’t move. He wants to hold her tight to him, to melt in her embrace, take in her touch, but he can’t. He feels that he doesn’t deserve it anymore, not after what happened to Glenn. He felt that it was his fault that she lost the only blood family she had left. 

—

In the evening, Morgan had shown the group where they would stay for the night as King Ezekiel had insisted. Rick caught Gloria up to speed: he’d finally decided to fight the Saviors after they had killed Spencer and Olivia, the Saviors also took Eugene after Rosita attempted to shoot Negan with a bullet he had made. The news that Negan had yet again killed more of their people in cold blood angered her but she was glad Rick was finally ready to fight them. Negan and the Saviors had to die. 

Throughout the night, Gloria couldn’t help but notice how Daryl was distant and seemed to be avoiding her. She knew it had to have something to do with the Saviors, whatever they did to him could not be good. She knew he was going through trauma from being held captive, but she couldn’t help but feel hurt that he seemed to have built up walls again and cast her out as well.

At night, she goes to find him. She needed to let him know that she was there for him no matter what. That he could lean on her if he ever needed to, she couldn’t let him go through all of this alone. Eventually, she finds him in a room that also holds Shiva’s cage. He was seated right in front of it, just staring at the animal who was resting inside the cage. Gloria lets out a small gasp when she sees him so close to the tiger. The small sound caught both Shiva and Daryl’s attention. Shiva looks in her direction and Daryl glances at the door but then looks away when he realizes it’s her.

She heaves a breath and goes to sit on the ground beside Daryl. He doesn’t react, it was as if he was pretending that she wasn’t even there. 

“Daryl?” she calls to him, her hand reaches out to hold his hand.

She frowns when he flinches at her touch, something he hasn’t done in a long time, “Daryl, sweetheart, please, talk to me.” Her voice is soft as she pleads. 

Carefully, she rests her cheek on his shoulder, her hand still holding his. Her thumb caressing his knuckles as she patiently waits for him to talk.

“‘M sorry…” he mutters in barely a whisper, “sorry…” he repeats, letting out a small sob.

Realizing that he was crying, Gloria sits up and wraps her arms around him. He lets himself lean into her embrace as he cries. She whispers into his ear, telling him that it’s okay, that they’re going to be alright, all the while rubbing soothing circles on his back.

“I ain’t got no right to be with ya anymore…” he chokes out.

His words hit her hard. Gloria’s eyes well up with tears as she finally realizes that he wasn’t apologizing for shutting her out or being distant, he was apologizing for Glenn. He was blaming himself for his death. She puts her hands on his shoulders to push him back to make him look at her. 

“Daryl, you have every right to be with me. I love you,” she tells him, “what happened… It wasn’t your fault.”

“It was…” he sobs out, looking down as he cries out his guilt and regret.

Gloria sighs and holds him close, kissing his forehead, “the only right you don’t have is to blame yourself, because I don’t blame you for it.”

She uses his words from a long time ago. The night they spent at the C.D.C., when Gloria was blaming herself for Merle going missing. Daryl had told her the same thing, that he never blamed her, so she had no right to blame herself. Daryl doesn’t say anything in response to her words. 

“I already lost my brother… I can’t lose you too…” her voice breaks, “I just can’t…”

He nuzzles into her embrace, his arms holding her close as she cries. Daryl didn’t feel any less guilty about Glenn’s death. He still felt that it was his fault, but he knew that he couldn’t keep pushing Gloria away, especially now when she needed him most. Guilt and regret tore at his heart as he knew that she had to go through the grief of losing her brother on her own. The only thing he could do now was stay by her side, protect her, and keep her safe. It was the only way he thought he could make it up to Glenn.

—

The next morning, Ezekiel had told Rick and his group that he decided not to join their fight against the Saviors. However, he was willing to allow Daryl to stay inside the Kingdom’s walls as they knew they were going to be looking for him when the Saviors find out he’s missing. Gloria knew that Daryl didn’t like it, staying behind in a safe place while the others went off to fight, but she knew he was also aware of the dangers of going out there when the Saviors were looking for him. Staying inside the Kingdom was his safest bet; he couldn’t go to the Hilltop and jeopardize Maggie, and Alexandria was out of the question. 

Gloria decided to stay back in the Kingdom with Daryl as well. She didn’t want to leave him alone after everything he’s been through. Rick puts his hand on Daryl’s shoulder, giving it a comforting and reassuring squeeze.

“We won’t be gone for long, I promise, we’ll be back for you soon. Stay here, maybe you can convince Ezekiel to join us. Or stare him into submission, whatever works.” Rick waves his other hand in the air as he says the last part.

“He’d have a better chance with the latter,” Gloria chuckles softly, earning a smirk from Rick and a glare from Daryl.

“We should get going.” Rick says, patting Daryl’s shoulder as he starts to walk away.

“Rick, wait.” Gloria calls out, making the man turn to face her, “at the safe house near Alexandria, underneath the floorboards you’ll find two bags of guns. If no one’s gone through the house, they should still be there. And take this.”

Gloria pulls out the notebook from her bag and hands it to him. Rick furrows his brows as he looks through the contents. 

“This is…” he says, not knowing what to say.

“Jesus took it from the satellite outpost we first took over, I used it to take out a few others.” she tells him. 

Rick nods and pulls her in for a hug, “thank you, this is gonna help a lot, I’ll be sure to put it to good use.”

Gloria smiles at him and nods, “we’ll win this, we have to.”

He pulls away and nods, then looks back at Daryl and nods to him as well before turning away to join the others who were already waiting for him. Daryl watches helplessly as Rick and the others walk out of the Kingdom. Gloria goes back to him and holds his hand, she knew he wanted to chase after them. After being taken away from his family, he hated being separated from them once again. 

“Hey,” she calls out to him in a gentle voice, “come on.”

Gloria gently tugs at his hand, urging him to follow her. He complies, but not without looking down. She brings him to the archery range where she waves at Richard, the man who had helped her with her form.

“Richard, this is Daryl.” Gloria says.

“Ah, she’s told me about you,” Richard says with a friendly smile as he picks up the only crossbow on the table, “the natural archer.” 

Daryl looks over at her, slightly shy knowing how Gloria was talking about him to others. He takes the crossbow and loads a bolt before aiming and shooting at the target. Expectedly, the bolt hits the centre of the target, earning a low whistle from Richard.

“You weren’t joking.” he chuckles.

“Nope, I wasn’t.” Gloria chuckles then turns to Daryl, “this is Richard, he helped me master the bow and arrow.”

“I wouldn’t say you mastered it,” Richard teases, crossing his arms, “let’s see your form.”

She eyes him before picking up the bow from the day before, nocking an arrow on the bow string. She draws the string back and then releases it, letting the arrow fly, hitting the target in its centre. Daryl smiles at her proudly as Richard nods in approval.

“It’s hard to believe you’re the same person who couldn’t even get the arrow passed the table.” Richard teases.

Daryl raises an eyebrow at her, “really?”

“Hey, I didn’t shoot that one.” Gloria says, then adds sheepishly, “I… dropped it.”

Richard chuckles at her explanation as Daryl shakes his head in amusement. Suddenly, static sounds from the walkie on Gloria’s belt. She looks up at Daryl with a worried expression.

“It’s the Saviors.” she tells him, catching Richard’s attention as well.

“For everyone out there who loved the obese bastard as much as I did, I just want to say a few words. Fat Joey was not the most badass son of a bitch, but he was loyal. He had a great sense of humor…” Negan’s voice emits from the walkie.

Gloria frowns at his words, “who the hell is Fat Joey?”

“The prick I had to kill to get out o’ that damn place.” Daryl spits out, his voice bitter and angry.

There’s a pause on the walkie after Negan says his eulogy for his fallen man, but static starts up again as his voice booms out, “We got ourselves a red situation. I need a search party. See if Daryl ran home, like the dumb animal that he is.”

Gloria sighs as the others respond to Negan’s call. She looks up at Daryl as he stares down at the walkie. She knew what he was thinking, there was fear evident in his eyes as well as anger. He wanted to go out there and kill them, but he was also afraid of being taken back to where he was held. 

“Hey, hey.” she calls out to him, she caresses his cheek with her hand, “they won’t find you, you’re safe here in the Kingdom.” 

“How long do you think that’s gonna last?” Richard speaks up, making Gloria and Daryl turn to look at him, “we’ve been dealing with the Saviors for a while now, and each time I always think is going to be the time they’ll turn on us and kill more of our people.”

“You… you’ve been dealing with the Saviors?” Gloria frowns at his words; Ezekiel didn’t tell her that.

He nods, “The King only has a few of us aware of it, the ones who go with him to the trade.”

“You mean to tell me… you’re actually working **with** them?” Gloria scoffs. 

“I don’t want to, but I can’t convince the King otherwise.” Richard says, then he looks at Daryl, “which is why I need your help.”

Gloria frowns at this, “help with what?”

She caught on that Richard was only looking at Daryl. From how Richard was speaking, it sounded like he wanted to fight the Saviors head on. She couldn’t let Richard pull Daryl into whatever plan he had. 

“Taking out the Saviors, getting the King on our side.” he confirms her assumptions.

Daryl steps up to Richard, “why?”

“Because we want the same thing,” Richard says, looking directly at Daryl, “the Saviors gone.”

Daryl stares at Richard as he also stares back at him. Gloria didn’t like this at all, they were going to get themselves killed. 

“You can’t do this.” Gloria shakes her head, looking at Daryl, “Rick is gonna come back, he’ll have a plan. He always does!”

“Ya can stay here an’ wait for him then.” Daryl says then walks away with the crossbow without even looking at Gloria.

“No, Daryl! Wait!” she rushes to him, grabbing hold of his arm and stepping in front of him, “you can’t go out there, not now! The Saviors are looking for you, you heard them! They put out a search party for you, it’s too dangerous.”

Daryl seems to have calmed down after listening to Gloria, he sighs and nods, “‘m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she smiles softly at him, “I know you’re eager to kill them, I am too, but we need to regroup with the others first, we need a plan.”

He nods and clears his throat, “can ya… can ya get me somethin’ to drink?”

Gloria chuckles softly as he looks down, as if he was embarrassed to ask her, “yeah, wait here, I’ll be back.”

She goes off to the canteen to fetch him something to drink. When she heads back to the archery range, she has two bottles of water in her hands. She figured that Richard might be thirsty as well but she frowns when she sees that neither of them are there. Gloria places the bottles on the table and looks around to find Daryl or Richard when she notices the crossbow is also missing.

“Shit!” she swears under her breath then runs towards the guarded gates, “hey, have either of you seen Richard or a guy with a crossbow?”

The guards look at each other then back at her, “yeah, they left not too long ago.”

Worry and fear fills her heart, although she already knew they left, she didn’t want to believe it. She groans in frustration, why did Daryl never listen to her? 

“Open the gates, please! I gotta find them.” Gloria shouts, she didn’t mean to raise her voice but she was desperate.

“Gloria?” 

She turns around to see Morgan walking up to her, a frown on his face, “what’s wrong?”

“Daryl and Richard… they went out to fight the Saviors.” Gloria tells him, she’s on the verge of tears.

Morgan sighs and shakes his head, he understood her worry since he also knew that the Saviors would be looking for Daryl. He didn’t expect Daryl to leave the Kingdom so soon, especially not without Gloria.

“Open the gates.” Gloria says to the guards in a calmer tone.

Morgan raises his hand to stop them from opening the gates, “you can’t go out there, it’s dangerous for you too.”

“I can’t just sit around and do nothing!” Gloria argues.

“I’m not telling you to do nothing, I’m telling you to wait!” Morgan raises his voice, then sighs, “you know Daryl, maybe he went out to hunt and not to fight the Saviors. You know that he can take care of himself.”

“It’s because I know Daryl that I’m worried. He might end up doing something he regrets or get himself killed.” she says, her voice full of frustration.

Morgan puts his hand on her shoulder, “we’ll just have to wait, and if they don’t come back before the evening, I’ll go with you to look for him.”

Gloria looks up at him and sees the sincerity in his eyes. She purses her lips and looks in the direction of the gates then sighs, nodding as she finally gives him. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!

Gloria was sitting on the steps that lead up to the theatre where she had first met with King Ezekiel. She was sharpening the knives that Jesus had lent her, waiting for Daryl and Richard to come back from outside the walls. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Daryl deceived her, tricked her. He asked her to get him something to drink and left her behind at the Kingdom even after she told him how dangerous it was for him. She even reiterated multiple times that the Saviors were actively looking for him. 

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of the Kingdom’s gates opening. She puts the knives back in the sheathes of her belt and rushes towards the gates. She sees Richard walking to the Kingdom with a split lip and swollen nose, but he was alone. Gloria’s heart begins to race with fear and worry as she goes up to him.

“Richard, hey, Richard!” she calls out but frowns when he doesn’t stop to face her, she grabs his arm to get him to stop walking, “hey!”

“What?!” Richard yells, annoyed as he yanks his arm out of her grasp.

“Where’s Daryl?!” she yells back, she never got intimidated by people yelling at her.

“Everything was going as planned until Daryl decided to throw a fit and beat me up, then he just stormed off!” he scoffs, “I don’t know where he went.”

“He stormed off and you just let him go?!” Gloria shouts, shoving Richard’s shoulder, “how could you do that?! You know the Saviors are hunting him!”

“With the way he was acting, he might as well have been one of them!” Richard shouts back in her face.

His words make Gloria’s blood boil and without saying another word, she punches him in the eye. Richard tumbles backwards, crying out in pain. Gloria is about to lunge for him when she is held back by Jerry who had rushed up behind her. Ezekiel strides beside him along with Morgan.

“What’s going on here?” Ezekiel demands an answer.

Morgan gives Gloria a disapproving look but she doesn’t notice as she’s still glaring at Richard. 

“Richard took Daryl outside the walls to take on the Saviors but just left him out there.” she seethes.

Ezekiel looks at Richard with a frown, “is that true?”

“We were going to fight them but it never happened. Daryl left on his own.” Richard says, his eyes never leaving Gloria, wary of her.

Ezekiel nods then looks to Gloria with a sympathetic look, “I gave Daryl asylum for as long as he needed, and seeing that he left on his own, that is not the fault of Richard.”

Gloria heaves and tries to calm herself down, “he called Daryl a Savior...” she mutters bitterly.

Richard scoffs at this, “with the way both of you act, you might as well be one of them!”

His words trigger an angry scowl out of Gloria as she lunges out of Jerry’s grasp. However, before she could reach Richard, Morgan hits her on the back of the neck with his staff, knocking her unconscious.

Jerry looks at Morgan then back at Gloria, “dude... was that really necessary?”

Morgan puts his staff back behind his back and nods, “I’ve seen how she fights, and if I hadn’t stopped her, Richard would have much more to worry about than a black eye, split lip and broken nose.”

Richard rolls his eyes then gestures to Gloria’s unconscious body, “she should be locked up.”

“No.” Ezekiel raises his hand to stop Richard from talking, then looks at him, “you were the one to provoke her. What were you thinking? Saying that she should be part of the group who slaughtered her brother?” 

Richard’s face falls with guilt, he looks down, “I... I didn’t know...”

“Jerry, carry Gloria to her quarters to rest.” he orders his loyal guard.

He nods and carefully picks up Gloria. Morgan steps in stride alongside Ezekiel.

“What about Daryl?” Morgan asks.

“There is nothing we can do to stop him, we can only hope that he is alive and well outside the walls of the Kingdom.” 

\---

The sky is already dark when Gloria wakes up. The colors of the sky let her know that it was well past evening. She sits up on the bed and groans at the soreness in the back of her neck. She thinks back to how she even got knocked out and mutters a curse at Morgan. He was the only one would be able to take her out in one fell swoop under the circumstances. 

Gloria turns her attention to the door when she hears footsteps coming towards the room. Daryl appears at the door holding a bottle of water and a plate that looks like a cobbler. He freezes when he sees her sitting up and staring at him. 

“You’re awake...” he mutters.

“You’re back.” Gloria says, though her voice doesn’t sound happy, Daryl knew he was in trouble.

He nods and slowly makes his way to the bed and sets the bottle and plate on the table beside her bed.

“Eat.” he says as he awkwardly gestures to the table then sits on the bed opposite hers, “ya prolly haven’t eaten all day.”

Gloria rolls her eyes at his remark, “oh yeah, I wonder what made me lose my appetite.”

Daryl looks down, avoiding her eyes, “‘m sorry...”

“For what?” she asks him, waiting for an answer but she continues when she doesn’t get one, “no, seriously Daryl, for what? Tricking me to get you a drink so that you can go off with Richard to fight the Saviors? Leaving me behind and making me worry? Or just not listening to me or caring about how I feel when I clearly told you that the Saviors are looking for you?”

Daryl shifts awkwardly and uncomfortably in his seat as she scolds him. He looks down, not answering as guilt eats at his heart. He knew he shouldn’t have left like that, but he let his rage and need for revenge get the better of him. He hears Gloria let out a deep but shaky breath as her voice breaks at her next words.

“What part of I can’t lose you do you not understand?!” she cries, bursting into tears.

He looks up at her to see tears streaming down her face, his heart breaks at the sight of her crying. Immediately, he gets up from his seat and goes over to her. He sits beside her and wraps his arms around her, pulling her close and stroking the back of her head. He continuously utters that he’s sorry in her ear. 

Gloria wraps her arms around his waist, snuggling closer to him as she stifles her sobs, “when I... when I saw that you didn’t come back with Richard... I got so scared... but he told us that you backed out, what happened out there?”

“Asshole was gonna lure the Saviors to Carol...” Daryl tells her, his voice low.

Gloria’s eyes widen at the mention of her name, she pulls away from Daryl and looks at him, “Carol? Our Carol?”

Daryl nods, “he was gonna make it look like she was the one who killed ‘em, make ‘em go after her just to provoke the King.”

Gloria takes a deep breath, closing her eyes to try and not let Daryl’s story anger her, she opens her eyes again, “I should’ve punched him harder...”

He smiles softly at that then brushes her hair out of her face, “I saw her. Carol.”

His words cause her to perk up, “how is she? Did you... did you tell her?”

Daryl bites his lips together and shakes his head. He thought that she would be upset at him for not telling Carol what happened to Glenn and Abraham, but to his surprise, Gloria smiles softly as she nods.

“Good...” she whispers.

He frowns at her reaction, confused, “ya know why she left?”

“I did... she told me before she left... she couldn’t live the way we did, not anymore,” she looks at him and sighs, “she didn’t want to become a serial killer in order to protect the people she cares about... she didn’t want to lose herself to that.”

“Why didn’t ya tell me?” he asks.

“I couldn’t. It was the day that Denise...” she trails off, not wanting to finish her sentence, and Daryl understands as well, he wasn’t the most approachable after the incident. 

Gloria lets out a breath, “I’m glad Carol’s okay.”

Daryl nods, “she told ya to take care o’ yerself.”

She smiles at that, no matter what, Carol could never stop being a mother figure to her. Gloria looks at Daryl as he gestures to the plate of cobbler again.

“Ya should eat up an’ rest, we’re heading back to Hilltop tomorrow mornin’, it’s a long way back.” he tells her.

Gloria eyes him playfully, “oh, so you’re actually taking me this time?” 

Daryl lets out a small groan as he leans into her, hiding his face in the crook of her neck as he mutters another string of apologies. Gloria has to hold in her giggle as he does this, she could never stay mad at him for too long, she loved him too much.

\---

As Daryl had said, the two left the Kingdom in the morning to head to the Hilltop. He was definitely right about it being a long journey back as it took them until the late afternoon to arrive at the gates. Enid was on the watch post and she grins when she spots Daryl and Gloria heading their way.

“Maggie!” she calls out then tells Kal to open the gates. 

Daryl walks through the gates first with Gloria following closely behind him. Maggie steps out from the Barrington house as she hears Enid’s call. She halts in her steps and her breath hitches when she sees Gloria, tears well up in her eyes as she starts to run towards her. Gloria gasps when she sees Maggie running and begins to run to Maggie, wanting to meet her half way.

“You shouldn’t be running like that with your baby.” Gloria tells her, worry in her voice.

Maggie smiles tearfully as she hugs her tight, “you’re okay, oh thank God... I was so worried when I woke up and you were just gone.” 

Gloria pulls away from the hug and wipes the tears away from her sister-in-law’s cheek, “I’m sorry I worried you, but I couldn’t tell you or Sasha... this was something I had to do on my own.”

“I know,” Maggie nods, understanding, “I’m glad you’re back, but don’t you ever do something like that again.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Gloria smiles, “so, how are things here?”

“Good, everybody’s getting ready for the battle with the Saviors.” Maggie tells her.

“Gregory actually agreed to that?” Gloria asks, surprised.

“Yeah right,” Maggie scoffs, “people of Hilltop are choosing to fight with or without Gregory’s consent.” 

Movement behind Gloria catches Maggie’s eye. She watches as Daryl sits on the steps to Jesus’s trailer, his head hanging low.

“How’s he doing?” she asks, a worried frown on her face. 

Gloria turns to follow Maggie’s line of sight and sighs, “he’s been distant... blaming himself for what happened.”

“It wasn’t his fault.” Maggie says.

“I know... of course I know...” Gloria sighs again, “but Daryl isn’t listening to me no matter how many times I tell him.”

“That’s Daryl... taking the blame for everything even when it was never his fault.” Maggie shakes her head.

Gloria looks at her, “Maggie, can you talk to him? Please? I don’t think he can face you with how he’s thinking.”

“Okay, I’ll figure something out.” Maggie nods.

For the evening, Daryl had been keeping to himself while Gloria was getting caught up to speed with how things were working at the Hilltop. After that, she made her way to the graves. She sits down in front of Glenn’s, sighing as she looks at the small pile of rocks that mark the grave.

“I’m back, did you miss me?” Gloria smiles weakly, then lets out a shaky breath, “I miss you...”

She looks up to the night sky as she tries to keep her tears from falling. She fails, however, as a few stray tears escape, rolling down her cheeks.

“Rick finally decided to fight. We’re gonna fight them,” she sniffles as she wipes the tears away, “I’m scared, Glenn... this is my first fight without you with me... and I’m scared... I don’t know if I can do this... give me strength to fight... please...”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!

Gloria spent the night in the trailer beside Jesus’s with Daryl laying beside her. However, she found herself alone on the small bed when she opened her eyes. She sits up and rubs her eyes of sleep.

“Wakey wakey.” 

She freezes at the sound of this all too familiar voice. Quickly, she looks up and tears well up in her eyes when she sees Glenn sitting at the dining table smiling cheekily at her.

“Glenn…” she whispers his name as she slowly gets up from the bed, not believing what she’s seeing but she doesn’t care, her brother is here right in front of her, “Glenn!”

He gets up from his seat as Gloria throws herself at him, hugging him tightly. Glenn chuckles as he hugs her back, cradling her head in his hand.

“You missed me, huh?” he teases.

Gloria whimpers as she nods, clutching his shirt with her hand. She was afraid that he would fade away if she let him go. 

“You gotta take care of yourself, and help me look after Maggie, okay?” Glenn coos in her ear, “you’ll win this fight against the Saviors.”

“I can’t… I can’t fight without you with me.” she chokes out in a sob.

“Hey, you still have me, we’re blood, you always have me with you. You can fight and you’ll win because we have each other.” Glenn says, gently stroking the back of her head, “Rick and Daryl are gonna lead you to win.” 

He pulls away from the hug and wipes away the tears staining her face, he chuckles, “when did you become such a big crybaby?”

She pouts and hits his chest, “I blame you…”

Glenn smiles fondly at her then ruffles her hair, “I gotta go now.”

Gloria looks up at him and shakes her head, “no… no no no… please don’t…” 

His figure begins to fade away, “no! Wait!” but he was already gone.

Gloria whimpers once more before breaking down into a sob. Her knees give way as she falls to the ground. Her eyes are closed as she cries when she feels someone shaking her shoulder gently. She lets out a gasp as she opens her eyes and finds herself still laying on the bed. Her eyes wet with tears as she looks around and sees Daryl laying beside her, his hand on her shoulder with a worried expression on his face. 

“Ya a’right?” he whispers softly, as if he thought that if he spoke any louder she would shatter.

Gloria shakes her head and snuggles closer to Daryl, clinging to his body, “no… no, I’m not…”

Daryl wraps his arms around her, letting her cry in his embrace for as long as she needs. 

“I was at Glenn’s grave… just the night before…” she whispers, “I asked him to give me strength… told him I was scared to fight without him…”

Daryl knew that. He saw her there, sitting in front of her brother’s grave, trying to stay strong even then, only to break down in front of the grave. He wanted to help her, to comfort her, tell her everything was going to be okay, but how could it be okay? How could he tell her that when Glenn was dead? How could he tell her that when he was dead because of him?

“I saw him… in my dream, just now.” she reveals, a tearful smile on her face, “he told me to take care of myself… look after Maggie… said that we’ll win the fight against the Saviors…”

Daryl presses a lingering kiss on her forehead, “he’s right, ya know, we will win.”

Gloria nuzzles into his chest, “he was right there… he felt so real, as if… as if he really was there…”

She cries softly, her tears wetting Daryl’s shirt. He gently rubs her sides up and down, trying to soothe her.

“You probably think I’m crazy to think that Glenn actually visited me in my dream…” she whispers, a light chuckle in her voice.

“Nah,” he nudges her head with his nose, “ya ain’ crazy, I still see Merle even when I’m awake.”

The two lay in the small bed for a while, wrapped up in each other’s arms. 

“Daryl?” she calls out, and he hums in response, “how long until the pain goes away?”

Daryl sighs at this, “‘t never does… jus’ gets less ‘n’ less as time goes on, but it’s always gon’ be there.”

“Do you miss Merle?” she dares to ask.

“I do.” he nods.

Gloria wraps her arms around him tighter, “I’m sorry…”

Daryl kisses the top of her head, “don’t be.”

—

Later in the afternoon, Gloria made her way to find Maggie in Jesus’s trailer. However, when she opens the door, she only finds Sasha sitting at the round dining table shuffling some papers around, seemingly a little bit frantic. 

“Hey.” Gloria greets her with a small smile.

Sasha smiles back at her as Gloria makes her way to the table and leans back on one of the chairs. 

“I just realized… I didn’t get to thank you for taking care of Maggie.” she says.

Sasha waves her off with a slight chuckle, “you don’t need to thank me, Maggie’s my family too.”

Gloria smiles at that, nodding gratefully. She glances down at the scattered papers on the table and one in particular catches her eye. She furrows her brows and picks it up, Sasha looks at her nervously as she does this.

“How do we have a map of the Sanctuary?” Gloria questions.

“Sanctuary?” Sasha asks, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

Gloria turns the paper around to show Sasha, “Sanctuary is the Savior’s home base, at least that’s what the assholes call it. Where’d you get this?”

“Jesus sketched it out for me,” she gets up from her seat and crosses her arms, “how do you know what the Saviors call their home?”

“The night I left, Jesus gave me a notebook he took from the Satellite post we took out, inside there were detailed maps just like this one of all their bases and outposts, the biggest one was labelled Sanctuary. It’s what gave me an advantage to take out their outposts before they shot me.” Gloria explains.

“Where’s the book?” Sasha asks, eagerness evident in her voice.

“I gave it to Rick, he needed it in order to properly plan for our fight. We’ll need him to know the enemy inside out so that we can win this 100%.” she tells her, “why did Jesus draw you a map of the Sanctuary?”

Sasha looks at Gloria and lets out a breath before speaking, “I’m going there to kill Negan.”

“Alone?” Gloria frowns when she nods, “you’re gonna get yourself killed if you go there on your own, Sasha.”

“I have to do this.” Sasha says, smiling sadly, “I’ll go in guns blazing and kill that son of a bitch or I’ll die trying.”

Gloria gives Sasha a look of sympathy. She sounds just like Abraham. Gloria had noticed the two had gotten close before he was killed and from how Sasha was so adamant on killing Negan, she was certain they had something special. 

“What?” Sasha asks, her tone defensive.

“Nothing,” Gloria shakes her head, “just realized something.” 

“What?” she repeats, giving Gloria a look that she’ll beat it out of her if she has to.

“You and Abraham, you were together before shit went down, weren’t you?” Gloria confirms as Sasha looks down and nods, “was that why I saw Rosita constantly giving you cut eye at the Kingdom?”

Sasha chuckles lightly and nods, “you saw that, huh?”

“It was hard to miss.” Gloria shrugs, “why didn’t you tell me that you two had a thing?”

“Yeah, tell you and then what? Have you and everyone else judge me? No thanks.” Sasha huffs, she’d seen the looks that people gave her when they saw Abraham leaving her house.

“Sasha, do you know me at all? I’d never judge you even if I had the right to. We live in a world where we don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next minute or even the next second. I know you took your chance at being happy even if people weren’t going to see your relationship in a good light,” Gloria reaches out and gently grabs Sasha’s arm reassuringly, “you took your chance at happiness, so who am I to judge you for your choices?”

Sasha smiles tearfully at her and pulls her in for a hug, “thank you… and I’m sorry… about Glenn…”

Gloria pats her back, “I’m sorry about Abraham.” she pulls away from the hug and smiles at her, “we’ll win this war to honor them both, Abe would love that.”

Sasha chuckles and nods, “yeah, he would.”

—

For the next few days, Sasha had been training the residents of the Hilltop and Gloria had been with Harlan in the medical trailer, learning how to work the ultrasound machine. Throughout the days, Gloria kept an eye out for Sasha, she knew she was going to leave the Hilltop any day now. She felt bad for keeping it from Maggie; it didn’t need to be said between Gloria and Sasha, she knew that Sasha didn’t want Maggie to know about her plan. She knew it was for the same reason Gloria didn’t tell anyone about her own plans for taking out the Saviors. 

Harlan lays down on the patient bed, “okay, now pretend I’m one of your pregnant patients and I would like to do an ultrasound scan. Of course, you’re not going to find anything, but just pretend.”

“And if we do find something?” Gloria says jokingly.

“Then I would be very concerned,” Harlan chuckles, earning a laugh out of Gloria.

Just as Gloria is about to turn on the ultrasound machine, a series of loud clanging could be heard from outside. Frowning, Gloria goes to open the door to see what’s going on.

“The Saviors are coming!” they hear Kal call from the watch post.

Harlan looks at Gloria in concern as he stands up, “you need to get out of here before the Saviors come.”

“Where?” she asks frantically.

“Maggie and Sasha dug an emergency escape just by the last trailer along the walls, you’ll find a hatch with a green cover.” Harlan explains.

She nods, thanks him then leaves the trailer. She shouts to Enid to get Maggie and Daryl, then runs towards the hatch. She goes through the hatch without waiting for the others, she figured that she would clear the other side of the exit in case there were walkers wandering around. Fortunately, the path was clear and she waits there for the others when Rosita crawls out of the hole, followed by Sasha. Gloria frowns as she sees their weapons and it dawns on her that Sasha was leaving on her mission.

“You’re going for it now?” Gloria asks, she had to make sure.

Rosita frowns in confusion and turns to Sasha, “you told her?” she asks in an annoyed tone.

“She found out on her own.” Sasha informs.

Rosita is about to say something else in annoyance but Gloria interrupts before the two can break out into a fight, “what’s your plan?”

Gloria’s question seems to spark even more frustration within Rosita as she rolls her eyes at her, speaking down to her as if she was stupid, “our plan is to shoot Negan in the head and kill him.” 

Gloria eyes the woman, “and how well did that work out the last time you tried it?”

Rosita glares at Gloria and steps up to her, scowling, “we’re going to kill Negan. We’re going **straight** to their home base instead of wasting time with their outposts.”

“You’re not looking at the bigger picture.” she says in a warning tone.

“What bigger picture?!” Rosita scoffs, “we’re going to kill Negan, how much bigger do you want the picture to get?!”

“Do you really think that the war is going to be over once Negan is dead?! Once he’s gone, yeah sure, we got revenge for Glenn and Abraham, but someone else who might have worse plans might step up and the Saviors already have an advantage for having more people. We need to get rid of all the Saviors, not just Negan.” Gloria retorts.

“Then we’ll start with him.” Rosita snarls and roughly pushes past Gloria, shoving her shoulder harshly.

Sasha shakes her head at her then gives Gloria a sympathetic look. Her eyes soften when she catches Sasha’s look and nods, pulling the other in a hug. 

“Don’t get yourself killed,” she mutters, “you still owe me a soda for beating your count back at the prison.”

Sasha chuckles softly and pats her back before pulling away from the hug. She smiles softly at her and nods, a bittersweet look on her face.

“You stay safe, and take good care of Maggie.” she says, tears in her eyes as she walks away.

Gloria nods, mirroring her look as she watches one of her best friends walk away, following Rosita to a mission to kill their enemy. 


End file.
